Our School at Blair Grocery (OSBG) is an independent alternative school and sustainability education center based in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. With the teenagers in our high school and neighborhood afterschool program, we operate an experiential curriculum that incorporates sustainability thinking and GED-prep into the work of ending hunger, and building a profitable community food enterprise and a regional food economy to drive sustainable community development in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
As educators and social entrepreneurs, we are guided by the principles of Backwards Design – the concept that, to be successful in designing a unit or class, planning a project, or implementing large scale social and cultural change, the educator/entrepreneur must begin with the end point – the “enduring understanding” – in mind. To reach that enduring understanding, we build what we call Scaffolding – strategy, steps, and benchmarks guided by an Essential Question.
Our current work is being guided by the Essential Question, “to what extent are we empowering at-risk youth to take leadership in making New Orleans, Louisiana the City that Ended Hunger?”
The Indiegogo Campaign
Last year, we successfully applied for a zoning variance, and legally zoned our property as a FARM, the first legally recognized farm in the city of New Orleans to date!
But it also has changed the city zoning-compliance-requirements for our headquarters. Its been amazing to be on the forefront of innovation and urban farming in our city, but its put us into a sticky situation. I mean, how do you zone a farm-school-residence-lodging space-community center in a city anyways? Coupled with Hurricane Isaac last summer, which put a hurting to our roof, we need to fix our building.
To make a long story short we need to do $100,000 worth of renovations on our headquarters and cannot use our building until we complete all renovations!
Check out the fundraising campaign here. If you’re interested in pursuing an internship with OSBG, check out this page.